AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF WAVE BOUNDARIES IN MULTILEAD ECG SIGNALS - VALIDATION WITH THE CSE DATABASE

This paper presents an algorithm for automatically locating the wavefo rm boundaries (the onsets and ends of P, QRS, and T waves) in multilea d ECG signals (the 12 standard leads and the orthogonal XYZ leads). Gi ven these locations, features of clinical importance (such as the RR i nterval, the PQ interval, the QRS duration, the ST segment, and the QT interval) may be measured readily. First, a multilead QRS detector lo cates each beat, using a differentiated and low-pass filtered ECG sign al as input. Next, the waveform boundaries are located in each lead. T he leads in which the detected electrical activity is of longest durat ion are used for the final determination of the waveform boundaries. T he performance of our algorithm has been evaluated using the CSE multi lead measurement database. In comparison with other algorithms tested by the CSE, our algorithm achieves better agreement with manual measur ements of the T-wave end and of interval values, while its measurement s of other waveform boundaries are within the range of the algorithm a nd manual measurements obtained by the CSE. (C) 1994 Academic Press, I nc.